Despite everything that had happened to Isaak thus far, he had always remained hopeful. Unlike the others, he had always been rather stubborn about his views on life.
Isaak was an undefeatable optimist, but for all the wrong reasons.
He believed that so long as the Earth kept spinning around the Sun at a comfortable distance, all would be well. Life always found a way to survive. Always. Even though much in life was not certain, Isaak was confident that there would always be more stories to be told.
And even though he would only exist for a fleeting moment, his death would not mean the end of everything. People would continue to live their lives and the planet would continue spinning.
Perhaps, in a couple of million years humanity will have disappeared, but even that still would not have meant that everything would be over. Life would still endure. And if another flaming meteor or ice age came around, it still wouldn't change a thing.
As fragile as it was, life was tenacious by design. It was the flickering candle in the wind that would not allow itself to be put out by the storm...
But now, Isaak wasn't so sure about that anymore.
"Oh my god, what the hell happened here...?" asked Isaak as he felt his stomach beginning to churn. He felt as if he had woken up, only to find out that his nightmares had followed him back into reality.
It was sterile in the truest sense of the word. A dry, alien landscape utterly devoid of any life greeted Isaak with all the warmth of a crypt.
Dark ruby-colored sand stretched across the land as if it were an endless scar upon the planet, forming enormous dunes and valleys of sand where he looked.
The image of Mars immediately popped up in Isaak's mind as he observed the alien desert and he said, "Am I still... dreaming? This can't be possible..."
Elaine furrowed her brows and said, "Did you have a nightmare or something? You've only been out for about an hour and a half. Want some lagreliorex? It'll clear your head real quick, but it makes your hands jittery as hell too."
Isaak rubbed his eyes in irritation and said, "No thanks. I'd prefer to not get drugged up in a metal coffin with you now that I have a good grasp of who you are."
A small giggle came from the seat in front of him and Elaine said, "Aww, don't be like that, okay? I didn't mean anything bad, it's just tradition to haze new pilots a bit. Besides, I'd hate to get on bad terms with you since you're the only person I can talk to freely, you know..."
'...Hm? What's she mean by that? Sounds like trouble though, so I better not ask...'
"Where the hell are we?" said Isaak as he focused his attention on the monitors around him instead of the lingering question in his head. He still wanted to know where the hell Elaine had taken them, even if he couldn't do anything right now.
More than anything, he disliked not being in control right now. In a world as chaotic as the one he had been thrown into, not even having a grasp on something as fundamental as his surroundings was the prelude to a gruesome death.
"Ahh, don't be such a baby. We haven't even made it to L.A.'s First Layer yet," said Elaine as she forwarded their telemetry data to one of Isaak's monitors.
They had already traveled a significant distance from Firehawk Base since he passed out, far beyond what Isaak felt capable of traversing on foot. A dozen miles might've been doable if he had the right gear and supplies, but they were already more than ninety miles away from Firehawk Base.
In other words, Isaak was royally fucked.
The only ticket back to civilization would be through Elaine, much to Isaak's dismay. He was completely at her mercy from here on out, a depressing fact he really didn't want to admit...
"L.A.'s First Layer... What does that mean? That some kind of military installation or something?" said Isaak as he continued to examine the telemetry data available to him.
He recognized very little of it, even though he had once lived in Los Angeles. There was nothing about the map data that made sense at all.
'Where's the damn coast? None of it makes, goddamnit... Why has it changed so much in such a short amount of time? Some cities aren't even listed here anymore either..."
This new map of Los Angeles was pockmarked with blank spots, large sections of classified land, and an entirely new coastline dotted with the warning "Forbidden Zone," that extended endlessly like a never-ending partition between the land and the Pacific Ocean.
Elaine let out a disapproving sigh and said, "You can't say stuff like that... if you intend on blending in as a native, you know. What you're talking about is common knowledge, even for Wildlings."
'Fuuuuck, fuuuck, fuck! She knows!! Did the old bastard tell her the truth?! What the fuck was he THINKING?!'
And for a tense couple of minutes, deafening silence filled the cramped cockpit until Isaak said, "...Why did he tell you?"
"Because you're extremely important and a lot of people want you for themselves. You're the first living thing that the Domain has ever spit out. It would've been one thing had it been an animal, but a living human being? You are beyond priceless... Isaak Gladstone."
Elaine grimly laughed and added, "Despite what my grandpa's told you, there's no way in hell that he's going to be able to protect you. At best, we'll have another month or two before the other Districts learn about you and then..."
Isaak felt his stomach beginning to churn again, almost as if he knew what she was going to say.
"You'll be done for. They'll tear Firehawk Base to pieces to find you in the dead of the night. They'll search for you across every square inch of this godforsaken planet until they find you. And then, they'll dissect you like a lab rat and perform who-knows-what on you..."
"B-But, Williams said that he called in favors to keep me from becoming a lab rat! He said that he already hashed it out with whoever's calling the shots! Why would he lie about that?!"
Elaine shook her head and said, "He didn't lie to you. As I understand it, he called in a big ass favor to have you placed under his temporary supervision, but once the other Districts find out about you, they're going to want to snatch you for themselves."
"Temporary supervision? The fuck is that supposed to mean?! I thought my safety had been guaranteed already!"
"I mean, sure, if you want to end up a lab rat for District-02 instead of another District or one of the megacorporations that work for them. If you wanna go down that route, then I'm sure that my grandpa can arrange that for you by the end of today."
The only thing that Williams had done was buy Isaak some extra time before the inevitable.
But in all honesty, the fact that Williams had postponed the date of Isaak's departure was already a major feat unto itself. It took many powerful connections in the Federation to accomplish such a task, something that only a few people in the world could achieve.
Nevertheless, it mattered little to Isaak because it would not change the fact that he was destined for a life of inhumane experimentation.
Crestfallen, Isaak slumped back into his seat and wistfully said, "What have I done to deserve this sort of treatment? I've done nothing wrong in my life and yet here I am, soon to be cut up into a thousand pieces for the sake of science..."
And then, as if to shut him up, the Reaper suddenly lurched and abruptly stopped. Had Isaak not been strapped into his seat belt properly, he would've crashed headfirst into the back of Elaine's seat with enough speed to have broken his nose and then some.
Like a silly ragdoll, Isaak was violently jerked around against his will. Terrified out of his mind, he shouted, "Hey, can you fucking not hit the brakes like that?! Jesus Christ, are all pilots insane adrenaline junk...."
But he slowly began to trail off as his eyes wandered onto one of his monitors.
It was all consumed in red sand, such that very little of it could even be seen.
Only the tips of certain buildings, presumably the tallest skyscrapers and buildings, had the height required to poke themselves out of the lifeless sea of sand that was...
"Welcome to the City of Angels," said Elaine as she put the Reaper into standby mode.
"The reason I brought you out here was because of my grandpa. He thinks you're too valuable to be caught by anyone, so he's asked me to train you."
"You want to train.... me?"
Elaine unbuckled herself from her seat and said, "It's the only way you're going to survive. So I've been unceremoniously dumped with taking care of you until you're capable of fending for yourself. I'm going to teach you how to survive in this wasteland and how to fight, the two most important skills you can have, and then..."
She pulled on a small metal latch, releasing their cockpit from the Reaper itself.
"You're going to steal this Reaper and make yourself scarce. You know, ride off into the sunset and never look back. That's your only chance for survival. Unless... you'd prefer to go to some secret facility to be experimented on?"
When she turned around and saw Isaak scowling quietly, she deviously smirked and said, "Then it's settled; I'm going to run you ragged every day from here on out until I feel satisfied with your skills. Don't worry though, I promise not to make it too hard on you at first, hehe..."
That was a blatant lie.
She was going to make life hell on earth for him.
And more importantly, she was going to enjoy every second of it...